LOCHES, Centre-Val de Loire, Address available on request

A 17th-century watermill with 2 9 hectares of grounds and a lake, nestled by a village in France's beautiful Touraine province. Two rubble-stone pillars flank a wrought-iron gate. This entrance gate opens into a vast, gently sloping lawn. A driveway takes you down to the back of the main building and a parking area. Your gaze is first drawn to the watermill: a long edifice with rendered stone walls, a roof of flat tiles punctuated with wall dormers, and a square tower crowned with a pyramidal roof. The watermill was built in the first half of the 17th century and extended in the 20th century. It appears on the Cassini map - the first detailed map of the entire kingdom of France, produced in the 18th century. The building has three sections. First, there is its long main section, which is the oldest part. This section has two floors: a ground floor and a top floor in its roof space. Second, there is a tower, which has a ground floor, a first floor and a second floor in its roof space. Last, there is a third, single-storey section. All the windows have timber lintels.

You reach the house's two entrance doors at two different places via footbridges that cross a millrace. The watermill looks out at its grounds, which are filled with many trees. A large terrace in front of the building leads to a swimming pool and a garden. Beyond them, there is a vast lake. You can take strolls on grassy expanses all the way around this lake. A stream flows alongside the lake before splitting into two. One branch is natural and flows through the grounds. The other branch, which becomes the millrace, flows behind the watermill to turn the old waterwheel.